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October 01, 2009

So Who is John L. Perry?

Yesterday, an article by one John L. Perry appeared very briefly on the Newsmax web page purporting to advocate a military coup against the Obama administration. Tom Maguire called "the silliest thing I read today, or maybe this year." The article was very quickly taken down, but in the meantime lefties were up in arms hollering treason.

The pulled NewsMax article imagining a military coup in the United States really is a riot to read. While it is of course utterly offensive and would have probably led to the writers death in most other countries, it provides a fascinating insight into the mind of a socially dysfunctional fantasist.

Perry also has had a distinguished career in public policy. He served President Lyndon B. Johnson as deputy under secretary of commerce and was a White House speech writer and race-relations trouble-shooter for President Johnson.

In the Jimmy Carter administration, he was executive assistant to the under secretary of Housing and Urban Development and was interim director of public information for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

[...]

Perry was also assistant to the president of the National Association of Broadcasters, a member of the top-management team and director of public relations for the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville, Tenn., and an academic fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, Calif.

My emphasis above. Turns out John L. Perry was a member of the Johnson administration, the Carter administration, and the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. Right wing? GOP? Wikipedia had this to say about the Center:

The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, California was an important think tank from 1959 to 1977, declining in influence thereafter. The Center held discussions in a variety of areas that it hoped would influence public deliberation. It attained some controversy with its conference of student radical leaders in 1967, and with a suggested new United States Constitution proposed by Fellow Rexford G. Tugwell.

And just how right wing is a think tank that entertained a theory that the U.S. needs a new Constitution?

With the popularity of Obama's health care plan sinking like a rock, lefties are in a panic. They've long since passed the point where anyone who opposes anything Obama is labeled racist, or unpatriotic, or both. They blame talk radio for stirring up the opposition, and they've been looking at ways to shut it down.

In John L. Perry I believe we have a lefty who's found his chance to make a difference. There's no military coup or any other kind of coup going on, and certainly "no right: wing coup. Our bloodless coups are scheduled ever four years. We call them elections. But aside from 2006 and 2008, lefties haven't been doing all that well. It's Rush Limbaugh's fault.

So along comes John L. Perry with his wild speculation on the chances for a military coup. I suspect he's doing his part to build the case for curbing talk radio. In the interest of national security, of course